The Nine Cometh

Flotsam

Arrival

From leaked government documents we know that nine days prior to their appearance on Earth a dark ship appeared in geostationary orbit above the north Pole it's exact dimensions were unclear due to its stealth qualities however it was very big indeed. The ISS spotted it first and some conspiracy theorists point to an interruption of signal as evidence of NASA trying to hide its existence.

The first three appeared hovering some nine meters above the ground in Parliament square, London, the lawn where Marine One lands by the Whitehouse in Washington DC and Moscow square. There was no displacement of air which would of caused a significant wind, they just appeared out of thin air.  Nine mile high ships for their exact dimensions see below.  Nine days later another three appeared in Syria, Israel and China.  Nine days later the last of the nine appeared partly submerged in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.

The reason for the lack of air displacement was due to the fact they were not quite solid.

Reaction to the Nine

When the first three appeared money & stock markets crashed. Then crashed twice more during the nine day intervals of appearance.  The world held its breath waiting for the Nine to make the first move. Nothing happened.

Dimensions and Initial Analysis

Each of the Nine were nine miles high, 90 meters square with a nine meter high boot like projection at the bottom and top of what was considered to be the ships. When all nine had appeared the ones that were hovering above the land, touched down with no impact tremors.

The UK contact team sent in a mini tank drone to only discover that the ships were not actually solid.  The drone passed straight through the ship and appeared on the other side.  Whilst inside the video and audio was pure static although the contact team had no problems with the GPS signals coming from the drone.

At night one of the ships would glow blue with a vein like structure across the surface of ship whilst during the day it was completely dark.  Each night the blue glow moved to a different ship.

The UK contact team sent their drone through a second time when their ship was blue.  They lost their signal connection to the drone nine seconds after it crossed the threshold. Fortunately the drone was programmed to retrace it's path if it received no commands after five minutes.  The drone that came back was almost frozen solid it did not completely make it over threshold.  It had to be lassoed with a iron cable and pulled back.  One of team members received ice burns when he touched it without gloves.  It was several hours before they managed to recovered any data from the camera.

The video recorded showed a small crater covered in what looked like a white powder and off in distance in the sky was the Earth.  The drone had traveled to the Moon.

The ship was not a ship it was a gateway to the Moon!

Further Analysis

The other ships proved to be gateways to planets within our solar system however the ninth Gate the one in Israel showed a binary star system which was eventually matched up with a star system some 20 million light years towards the galactic center of the Milky Way.

Israel's aerial drone discovered another series of Gates on the exoplanet and that the air was breathable therefore habitable by humans.

The Gates stayed on with bidirectional travel for nine hours and then shut off instantly. The distance to travel was nine meters in any direction after crossing the threshold.  A number of experiments were conducted to see what happens to organic and non-organic materials left within the travel zone (TZ).  All items left in the TZ just vanished never to return.

Shifting Powers

Israel realised that the power that shifted dramatically in their favor and that the old geopolitical power-bases would be circumvented through the use of the Nine.  However Israel were in for a serious shock, fortunately nobody was killed during the planned manned excursion through their Gate.

It was discovered that every nine days each Gate's destination shifted to a different location, so that when Israel's excursion occurred they found themselves to be on the surface Europa one of Jupiter's moons instead of in a different star system.  The recon team were wearing pressurised environment suits in case of infection or usual phenomenon although one member nearly broke her leg on a giant ice fissure that opened upon their arrival.

Basically this meant no one country had exclusive access to a particular Gate's destination.  For three years the international community argued and in a couple of cases attacked science stations established on Mars.  Eventually however a new World Government body called the Janus Gateway Foundation was set up to manage all travel through the Gates.

Medical Benefits

Passage through the Gates removed all biological infectious agents, it also appeared to cure or stop the spread of various diseases throughout a person's body including cancer.  This was discovered by chance when a dying but extremely rich man traveled to the exoplanet.  This man now runs the Non Profit Medical organisation Nightingale in partnership with the Janus governing body.

Jetsam

Religious Reactions

Many different faiths collapsed under the revelations of the Nine whilst a couple renewed their faith and several new religions were formed including the End Times cult or to various intelligence agencies just ETC.

The ETC bombed the China Gate whilst it was active, no one barring ETC members were hurt.  It is assumed that the bomb went off prematurely whilst two ETC members were in the TZ.  The other seven members were shot dead whilst defending the Bombers passage through the threshold.  The Gate shut off instantly and stayed off for seven hundred and twenty nine hours just over thirty days.  There was no secondary indicators external to the threshold that the bomb had exploded.

ETC believed that the Nine were sent from the Devil to make way for his armies of demons. They used the book of Revelations to explain that the Nine are in fact the Beasts of Earth & Sea:

"John saw it "rise up out of the sea, having seven heads..."
"two horns like a lamb.."

Other religions and conspiracy theorists used the number nine as so called evidence that the Makers of the Gates had visited Earth previously and embedded the significance of the number so that we would recognise the coming of the Nine as a good thing.  Many however ascribed to the more obvious and simple answer in that it was just a coincidence.

Later Analysis

The Gate system on the exoplanet has eighteen gates and the sequencing of the gates proved to be far more complex than those on Earth.  Instead of just a blue glow there were two other colours: Green and Red.  This Gate system has two interstellar destinations whilst the other sixteen were local to the binary system.

Makers

It has been speculated that the Gates were created by an extremely advanced civilisation that are possibly extinct however until the entire Galactic network has been explored nothing is certain.

It has also been postulated that the network is still being built as evidence of their arrival upon Earth.  Possibly by self-replicating machines traveling at sub-light speeds to each habitable system slowly expanding the network through the Milky Way.

At present there has been no communications with the Gates or their creators

Is the future ours or we being subtly nudged down a new path?

Ib & Ob: IOP Paradox Part 8

Ob: How did you know they were Haxians?

Ib: Well the Chameleon suit disguised them but not their footfalls, six vibrations then another set.

Ob: He said he is The Mercenary, like it meant something.

Ib: Unfortunately yes, they live very long lives Haxians that is. I only know one person whoever described a Haxian Mercenary prefixed with "The".  IGal used him quite a bit.

Ob: But I thought you said she had gone into hibernation because you had a falling out.

Ib: Barely besides she had more of a disagreement with the rest of her race than me although it was related to the IOP. She never believed me mostly because she had one of the artifacts.

Ob: What you never said!

Ib: Go roll your orbs somewhere else I had lost a friend.  She said that the artifact proved my theory was incorrect.

Ob: Your theory well let us call it what it really is a hypothesis not a theory. You have no evidence.

Ib: IOP is quite sound, what evidence do you have of the artifact theory exactly?

Ob: Well it is well known that the artifacts are meant to show meaning in the universe.

Ib: Really known by who exactly and in all this time only one has ever been found and its authenticity is definitely in question.

Ob:  When you said she had a disagreement with her race what did you mean exactly?

Ib: Trying to tempt me with a different tangent I see, well if you must know she is the matriarch of her species and they must do everything she commands.

Ob: Did they rebel then?

Ib: They thought she was diverting too many resources into finding the artifacts and even when she found one which is debatable they were still unhappy.  She entered hibernation early and her race had to go dormant until she awoke.  Of course they blamed me since I was only biped on the planet at the time.

Ob: I surprised you got off the planet alive.

Ib: Yes well her escape pod proved very useful indeed, heavily shield too.

Ob: Did not Grey World recover it from you upon landing?

Ib: Yes well Grey World seemed to blame me for IGal's hibernation too which is why they took the escape pod from me.  Said I caused a major diplomatic incident.

Ob: Well technically a full third of the x9-18 sector went dark because IGal's race went dormant.

Ib: Yes but it was not like the whole sector was dark, the rest picked up the work in no time.

Ob: I am not sure two hundred and thirty four cycles counts as "no time".

Ib: Fine! Have you looked at the artifact yet?

Ob: Well I would rather not look at it since it is very ugly.

Ib: But it is a really bad image of us, Greys that is.

Ob: I find it quite vulgar to look at let alone handle it.

Ib: I am sure the statue is merely a facade.  It is what is inside that interests me.

Ob: Err, your not going to stick to protocol then?

Ib: Do you really want to explain to the Colony Commission about your attempt to seed a new planet?

Ob: Perhaps you are right but what about the Haxian mercenaries?

Ib: You did get the ship shielded right?

Ib & Ob: IOP Paradox Part 3

Ib: Well it definitely seems a little odd that the density of the hydrogen is so high.

Ob: Perhaps someone else is here?

Ib: Anything showing on sensors?

Ob: No, but they could be blocking us.

Ib: Okay, how exactly will I be communicating with the natives, we still have not found the location of their telepathic nodes.

Ob: Well the information I have gathered points towards that big hole in the front of their heads. Plus we still do not know the function of the holes on either side of their heads.

Ib: But that is the food intake is it not, how disgusting! Well I suppose those two holes could be the telepathic nodes.

Ob: Now the suit can mimic the holes movements whilst you communicate.  I mean all intelligent races have some method of receiving telepathic communication.

Ib: Of course they have to be intelligent first.

Ob: Now I suggest you use the shuttle with the landing lights set to your chaotic play list.

Ib: Why?

Ob: The Communication probes says there is a gathering tonight and the sub-species have already put up a lot of flashing lights so hopefully with the shuttle in hover mode no one will see anything unusual.

Ib: Hiding in plain sight very clever but make sure you have the remote control enabled then just in case.

Ob: You have to enable it in the shuttle first before I do it on the console.  Do not worry I will have an open channel with you at all times.

Ib: That is what worries me, now remember do not you use the teleport on the shuttle unless I say.

Ob: I do not see how you can possibly blame me for any additional pigments you picked up whilst using that teleport.

Ib: My natural pigment is not green, ever!  Admittedly I have picked up a little blue over years but not green.

Ob: And remember when talking to the sub-species do not mention anything to do with your theories, they will not understand them.

Ib: Which theories are you referring to?

Ob: The IOP Paradox for instance, you cannot be telling them anything like that.

Ib: Why? It is almost a fact of life in the known universe.

Ob: Only to you, try not to give them ideas. You complained at me for ruining a primitive planet before.

Ib: But that was art, you cannot mess with that.

Ob: I suggest you have some rations, the gathering starts soon. You are looking a little green round the orbs.  And feed the Trilons whilst you are down in the thruster bay.

Ib: Very funny when did you grow a sense of humour?

Ib & Ob: IOP Paradox Part 2

Ob: Well if you are going to use non-standard form then do not bother. And in answer to your question it was set to 9Waver.

Ib: How exactly does a Chameleon suit disguise itself as nine staggeringly large tentacles?

Ob: Well apparently it is actually nine Chameleon suits joined together and for your information there have been many studies showing that 9Waver creates complex mathematical equations by waving its tentacles.

Ib: Or perhaps it is just waving hello, so you have set the suit to the bipedal sub-species right?

Ob: Yes, it should create you as a crowd of nine different people.  I suggest however avoiding all forms of high energy just in case.

Ib: In case of what?

Ob: Well the suits do operate on bending light waves so it does use up a lot of energy but the wrong sort of energy might cause a disruption in its matrix.

Ib: You are filling me with so much confidence right now.

Ob: Of course, I mean what could possibly go wrong, there is no indication that the species have that sort of technology to cause an issue.

Ib: Right! I just remembered what IGal said about the artifacts being hidden in hydrogen.

Ob: What do mean, how do you hide inside an atom?

Ib: Not the atom. Did not you think it was odd that the hydrogen wall round this planetary system was so dense?

Ob: Well it was a bit foggy.

Ib: A bit, the navigational computer had a mental breakdown we had to coax it back to normal space with images of comets and stars.

Ob: That computer has always been a bit weird, remember that time in the trinary star system of Ben't 4. It insisted on reversing the ship into orbit.

Ib: I seemed to remember that was your fault because you had reversed the polarity on the rear thruster array.

Ob: Not my fault the maintenance guide said that would fix the problem with the ion grill.

Ib: That guide was for the ion grill not the ship.

Ob: But it clearly stated to turn the knob fully to the middle on the back of the thruster array.

Ib: I think you mis-read it, it said Toaster array.

Ob: Why did you put the ion grill in that bay in the first place?

Ib: Because you kept making the entire ship smell of Trilon bait.

Ob: You have feed them you know, if they have not eaten they can be quite violent at times.

Ib: I think perhaps we need to return to the correct orbit and the matter of this artifact.

Ob: Fine, are you saying this planetary system has been hidden on purpose?

Ib & Ob: IOP Paradox Part 1

Ib: No reason, what is that flashing light on the console?

Ob: What light, Oh that light it has been flashing since we came into orbit.  I assumed it was broken.

Ib: Why would you assume that?

Ob: Because it is the artifact light, you know the one that comes with every ship sold.

Ib: The one that is meant to flash in the presence of an immensely powerful artifact, that one?

Ob: Yes, I mean it is a complete Space Purple Panug!

Ib: Language! Besides I happen to know it is all true, which means this trip is not a waste of rotations.

Ob: Really!  How do you know it is true?

Ib: Because of IGal!

Ob: But IGal is a...

Ib: Come on you can say it, you are after all a Rebel! IGal is a what?

Ob: Female!

Ib: There you go how hard was that! How did you think I passed my exams? She was a huge source of data.

Ob: But she not even of our race...

Ib: Not much of a Rebel are you, cannot see even past your own orbs.

Ob: Fine. Well according to the location matrix the artifact is in a Muse of Ums.

Ib: Are you reading that right, what is Ums? Here let me look.  Thought so, that says Muse of Urns.

Ob: Really and what it that exactly?

Ib: Well according to the communication probes a building that contains objects older than the present.

Ob: Perhaps it has been lost in translation, although I suppose it is a good place for an artifact to be. According to the scanner the building is filled with bipeds, you will have to go in disguise.

Ib: Really let me guess your suggesting I wear a Chameleon suit?

Ob: Well I cannot wear it, you know how it affects me.

Ib: Okay, however where did get this suit from?

Ob: One of the Science Club members lent it to me.

Ib: Lent or gave?

Ob: We just need to turn off the default setting to C'raf 4, that was the last place it was used.

Ib: What! C'raf 4 only have two beings on it and there is no proof that either are intelligent.  Which one was it set to the Sand or 9Waver?

Ob: I do wish you would not call them by their shorten names!

Ib: Really you me want to spending sixty rotations saying two names?